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In growth push, Acronis redefines backup

By most measures, backup vendor Acronis International is a successful company. Through its global operations, the company supports more than 5 million consumers and 300,000 businesses. The bulk of its customers and revenues come through a sprawling army of 30,000 resellers, making the company a potent competitor — particularly in the SMB segment.

Yet, Acronis is hardly a household brand. It’s just one of more than six dozen vendors that offers some form of backup software and cloud service.

Recently, Acronis — under the new leadership of CEO Serguei Beloussov and newly appointed president Yury Larichev — announced its goal of growing into a billion-dollar company by redefining what it means to backup and protect data.

The recently launched Acronis AnyData platform provides businesses with backup and data protection designed around applications and workloads. The idea is not to drive all data through the same pipe, but rather build specific routes to data protection that meet the priorities and operational needs of an organization.

“Data protection is more important today than ever before. Since losing business critical data is not an option, organizations are acutely aware of the need to protect their data,” said Beloussov, who returned to the company last year after a hiatus. “Our mission is to be the leading provider of easy, complete and safe new generation data protection solutions. With AnyData technology and our updated suite of products, we have redefined best-in-class for backup, disaster recovery and secure access.”

“The Acronis AnyData engine delivers the industry’s best data protection for specific workloads, while seamlessly integrating to become a comprehensive solution. Our new team is the same – made of professionals who are the best in their individual fields, but when assembled, they will take Acronis to a new level,” said Beloussov, who returned to Acronis last year after a hiatus.

Leading the sales charge is Larichev, who most recently served as CEO of ERP vendor Acumatica. In an interview with Channelnomics, Larichev laid out the Acronis vision of providing solution providers with options for building better backup systems either with on-premises software or cloud-based infrastructure. By the end of the year, Acronis will field new, integrated products that will provide end-to-end management of data flows.

The intent behind Acronis’s strategy and product development is to move away from the bloated pack of backup vendors to talk about data systems, operational workflows, and data priorities. Rather than trying to differentiate based on features, functionality and price, Acronis wants customers to see their system as a driver of operational integrity.

Acronis isn’t the only backup vendor taking this approach. Axcient adopted the moniker “recovery as a service” to denote its position in the market as something different than backup. SunGard Availability Services, too, is pushing the idea of an enterprise data protection provider that integrates with leading legacy systems. Acronis’s approach is somewhat different as it does relegate backup to a supporting position within the data protection conversation.

The goal of becoming a billion-dollar company is lofty, and there’s no telling how close Acronis is given its privately held status. The notion of completely changing the value conversation, though, is a sound strategy for driving purchasing consideration and, consequently, growth.